EMILY’s List raises record $90 million

WASHINGTON — EMILY’s List raised more than $90 million during the 2016 election cycle, the largest haul in its 31-year history, the Democratic group told USA TODAY on Tuesday.

The 2016 total easily eclipses the organization’s previous record of $60 million collected during the 2014 election cycle. Membership also surged by 2 million people since the end of 2014, and EMILY’s List now counts more than 5 million among its members, officials said.

The group, which works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, was among the outside groups at the forefront of the effort to make Hillary Clinton the first female president. It also invested heavily in the successful campaigns of several incoming lawmakers, including Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire but failed to unseat other targeted senators, such as North Caroline Republican Sen. Richard Burr.

In a statement, EMILY’s List Stephanie Schriock said the group plans to unleash its growing membership to “fight back against the dangerous, anti-woman policies of this Republican Congress and the Trump White House by bringing more pro-choice Democratic women’s voices to all levels of government.”

EMILY’s List is one of the sponsors of the Jan. 21 Women’s March on Washington, where some 200,000 are expected to protest the new president and his policies, a day after his inauguration.

On Jan. 22, the group will hold a candidate-training session for roughly 500 women attending the march who are interested in running for office.

EMILY’s List has raised more than $500 million since it launched in 1985.